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A Syllabus of 



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BRYANT. 





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A SYLLABUS of 

PSYCHOLOGY 






BY 



/ 



WILLIAM My BRYANT, 

w 

Instructor in Mental and Moral Philosophy 
ST. LOUIS HIGH SCHOOL. 



CHICAGO 

S. C. GRIGGS & CO. 

1892. 



|**< 



l<.t<*b)k 



^ 






COPYRIGHT, BY WM, M. BRYANT. 
1892. 



PREFACE. 



This Syllabus, prepared primarily for use in my 
own classes, is published in its present form with the 
belief that, as emphasizing the more essential aspects 
of the subject and omitting minor details, it may 
prove serviceable as (in the stricter sense) a text 
for the brief course in Psychology practicable in high 
schools and academies generally. It is also hoped 
that, as a summary view of the subject, it may prove 
acceptable as a guide to private students as well. 

I am convinced that, for younger pupils especially, 
brief text-books are essential to anything like clear- 
ness and continuity of results. No doubt this neces- 
sitates only so much the greater degree of careful 
preparation on the part of the teacher. But in any 
case really vital results can be secured only in the de- 
gree in which the teacher throws his whole life into 
his work. It is, above all, through the contagion of 
his own personal enthusiasm that interest is to be 
awakened on the part of his pupils ; just as it is 
only through the freshness and validity of his own 
knowledge of the subject that his pupils can be led to 
apprehend its fundamental features, and to assimilate 
the proper method by which they can hope to become 



independent inquirers. A working teacher will 
always have working pupils ; and this the more if they 
are not overwhelmed with text-books rendered wholly 
unmanageable for them by sheer excess of details. 
For the more immediate purposes of education by 
far the greater part of details and illustrative matter 
can best be given directly in the class — it being 
assumed that the teacher himself is properly equipped. 

The outline here presented has developed directly 
through work in the school-room during the past seven 
years. I hope I need hardly say that I have drawn 
freely upon the works of leading thinkers, both ancient 
and modern. How far my work shows genuine as- 
similation and organic reproduction of results, the 
critical reader will, of course, decide for himself. A 
more extended text-book of the subject for use in 
more advanced classes is in preparation on the same 
general plan, and will, as I hope, be ready for issue 
within the coming year. 

For the convenience of private students a selected 
list of hand and reference books is added at the end 
of this Syllabus. 



A SYLLABUS OF PSYCHOLOGY. 



I. INTRODUCTION. 

In Psychology Mind is considered as an Individual; 
that is, as an indivisible unit of Energy. As such 
it has many modes clearly distinguishable, but wholly 
inseparable from one another. It is the special func- 
tion of Psychology as a Science to define the funda- 
mental modes of Mind and to show the necessary 
relations which those modes sustain one with another. 
Its task is not to trace individual idiosyncrasies, but 
rather to outline and account for the essential char- 
acteristics of Mind considered in its universal nature 
or type. And if Psychology takes account of 
"mental diseases" it does so only that it may the 
more clearly define the true or normal type. 

From its very nature as an indivisible unit of En- 
ergy Mind acts always as one. All its modes are 
involved in every act ; one or another mode being 
predominant in each act. 

The most complex phases are present from the 
first, but are latest in attaining maturity in the course 
of the unfolding of the individual mind. It is for 
this latter reason that there is the appearance of serial 



development in the unfolding of the several aspects of 
mind — as if one aspect began developing only after the 
development of another had been completed. 

In its development Mind presents two strongly con- 
trasted aspects. The first is predominantly Physical 
and comprises the whole range of Sensation. The 
second is predominantly Spiritual and unfolds in the 
three mutually inclusive phases of (A) Intellect, (B) 
Sensibility and (C) Will. 

It can here be only remarked in passing that Con- 
sciousness is the most comprehensive characteristic of 
mind as a concretely realized unit of Energy. It is, 
primarily, the sense of unity and co?itinuity of the in- 
dividual life. It is the form of recognition (1) of 
self as distinguished from external objects, (2) of the 
identity of the self of present experience with the self 
of past experiences, and (3) of self as a self- — i.e., 
5^// 1 consciousness. This last form involves all the 
higher aspects of experience. The more rudimen- 
tary forms, for the very reason that they are rudimen- 
tary, are non-reflective. Hence in such forms con- 
sciousness is directed outward rather than inward. 
Much passes in its own process of which the individual 
is unconscious, or only obscurely conscious. For 
example, a child's consciousness is mainly of outward 
appearances in their most immediate (i. e., simplest) 
character. On the other hand, it has no conscious- 
ness of the real nature of those outward appearances. 
Its attitude toward the facts of the world it lives in is 



that of "unsuspecting innocence" or "naivete." 
It is conscious, and yet not conscious that it is con- 
scious. It has knowledge ; but its knowledge is in 
every particular only rudimentary in degree and 
hence requires the most thorough-going revision be- 
fore it can be counted as knowledge in any degree 
approaching real adequacy. It is this merely initial 
aspect of consciousness in contradistinction with con- 
sciousness in its fullest measure which has given rise 
to the riddle of "unconscious consciousness." 

II. SENSATION. 

As the predominantly physical aspect of mind, 
Sensation can be brought under scientific review only 
through the direct co-operation of the two sciences, 
Physiology and Psychology. Thus the scientific 
account of Sensation gives rise to, and in its posi- 
tive aspect constitutes the larger portion of, Physi- 
ological Psychology. Body, as the organ of mind, 
presents itself as a legitimate object of study in Psy- 
chology. This is, of course, especially true of that 
part of the bodily organism serving more directly as 
the mind's instrumentality — z. £., the nervous system ; 
and, above all, of the brain as pre-eminently the 
organ of mind. 

A. Nature of Sensation. — Every Sensation is 
essentially an act of mind. At the same time it is 
an act which in its nature is simply a response to an 
immediate physical stimulus ; that is, in Sensation 



mind is relatively passive. Whatever the nature of 
the external stimulus, there must be an immediate 
contact of the medium of stimulation with the sense- 
organ. In which fact there is strong intimation of 
the view (already entertained by Aristotle) that all 
the senses are modifications of the sense of Touch. 
This view is, besides, confirmed by the results of 
modern biological science. The chief senses are 
Sight, Hearing, Touch, Muscular Sense, Taste, Smell, 
Temperature. The negative aspect of all sensation 
is that of Pain as due to injury sustained by nervous 
tissue — especially that of the nerve-fibers. 

B. Limits of Sensation. — Sensation is the rudi- 
mentary aspect of the mind. Hence Sensation is not 
realizable as a "simple" mode of mind, since in its 
very existence all the other modes are already neces- 
sarily implied. Thus Sensation has its limitation in 
this: that it is the simplest aspect of relation between 
the mind and an external stimulus. As such it is the 
initial aspect at once of Intelligence, of Sensibility 
and of Will. 

C. Classification of the Senses. — As the im- 
mediate (simplest) relation of the mind to external 
stimuli, sensation presents both an objective and a 
subjective aspect. And as this relation between the 
mind and external stimuli involves the intermediation 
of the bodily organism, sensation also necessarily pre- 
sents a physiological aspect. 

Thus the senses are found to present several special 



groups of characteristics according as they are con- 
sidered in respect of the physical stimulus, the 
psychical response, or the physiological medium ; 
and hence they are to be grouped into classes with 
reference (1) to their objective aspect, (2) to their 
subjective aspect, and (3) to their physiological 
aspect. 

1. Considered in their objective aspect, the senses 
are seen to be either (a) Geometrical — i. e., media 
through which consciousness of space-relations is 
awakened; or (b) non-geometrical — i. e., as possess- 
ing little or no suggestion of such relations. 

a. The Geometrical Senses are (#) Sight, (/5) 
Touch, and (7) the Muscular Sense. The first is the 
medium for perception of form and color ; the second 
for perception of form and texture, the third for per- 
ception of states, of matter and of motion (the latter 
subjectively experienced as "sense of motion ; " as in 
movement of the limbs, etc.) 

b. The Non- Geometrical Senses are («) Hear- 
ing, (/3) Taste, (/) Smell, (S) Temperature. In all 
these the geometrical character of the stimulus is 
broken up before the psychical response, properly 
speaking, begins. 

2. Considered in their subjective aspect, the senses 
are either (a) Intellectual — i. e., media through which 
there is awakened consciousness of the world in all 
its characteristics, external and internal; or (b) Or- 
ganic — i. e., media through which there is awakened 



10 

consciousness of physiological states of the individual 
as referred directly or indirectly to external stimuli. 

a. The Intellectual senses are («) Sight, (/3) 
Hearing, (y) Touch and (d) the Muscular Sense. 

All these senses are involved in the minutest and 
most commonplace, as well as in the most important, 
details of life. The first two are involved in the 
higher range of Art and Science, supplementing one 
another in the most complex ways in both these 
spheres. 

Sight, as pre-eminently the geometrical sense, is 
constantly called into use as absolutely indispensable 
to science in its widest range as well as to all the arts 
of visible representation ; while hearing is the me- 
dium of all spoken language on the one hand and of 
the art of music on the other ; in which latter it shows 
its subtlest and most thoroughly subjective character. 
Both Touch and the Muscular Sense have a higher 
value intellectually than is commonly assigned them. 
Touch is constantly exercised to correct the impres- 
sions of form as developed through the sense of 
vision ; while the Muscular Sense is the sense through 
which the mind attains full conviction of the objective 
realty of the sensuous world. 

b. The Organic Senses are («) Taste, (,3) Smell, 
and (/) the sense of Temperature. (Other more or 
less vague forms of sensation are to be included as 
organic — as aspects of the general sense-conscious- 
ness, diffused feeling, Ge?neingefuehl.) 



11 

Smell and taste are also otherwise known as ' 'Senses 
of Nutrition." 

3. Considered in their physiological aspect the 
senses are either (a) Mechanical — i. £., senses in 
which the response is to a simply mechanical exci- 
tation of the nerve-ends; or (b) Chemical — i. e., 
senses in which the response is to an actual chemical 
change produced by the stimulus in the end-organs of 
the nerves. 

a. The Mechanical senses are (a) Hearing, (/5) 
Touch, (y) the Muscular sense and (d) the Tempera- 
ture sense. 

6. The Chemical senses are (<z) Sight, (/?) Taste, 
and (7) Smell. 

It is at once evident that to Psychology in its higher 
phases the subjective aspect of sensation is the most 
important, and next to this the objective ; while the 
physiological aspect is of subordinate import. Never- 
theless even the most exalted phases of mind neces- 
sarily involve physiological functions. Only, the 
more explicitly the higher phases of the mind are 
developed, by so much the more does the sense-aspect 
show itself as limited to a relatively narrow T sphere 
and as realizing its highest values precisely then when 
most thoroughly subordinated to the highest functions 
of mind. So that, even to ascertain the highest values 
of sensation, we must turn to the study of those higher 
modes of mind known as Spiritual in contrast with 
its sensuous or Physical modes. 



12 
III. THE INTELLECT. 

The predominantly spiritual aspect of mind unfolds 
its highly complex character in the completely inter- 
fused, though clearly distinguishable, modes known 
as Intellect, Sensibility and Will. 

The development of all science depends upon the 
predominance of the mode of mind named Intellect. 
For this reason it is desirable to begin the develop- 
ment of the science of mind in its predominantly 
spiritual phase, with an analysis of this special aspect 
of mental activity. 

Sensation is predominantly physical ; and yet, in 
order really to be sensation, it must also present a 
psychical aspect. This psychical aspect appears pri- 
marily as the simple function of the physical. But 
further investigation (embodied in the whole of mod- 
ern biological science) discovers the universal law 
that while in its immediate character structure limits 
function, yet essentially and in the total history of 
organisms function determines structure. So that the 
structural form is but the organic embodiment — the 
concrete expression — of the functional activity. The 
more complex the organism the more elaborate the 
functional process presupposed as necessary to account 
for the structural form. 

Applying this in the present connection, it appears 
that in truth the human body is but the embodiment 
— the concrete expression — of the human mind 



13 

(heredity being allowed for). The brain is, doubt- 
less, the more immediate organ of the mind; the en- 
tire body is still none the less, as a whole, organic to 
the mind. 

The psychic life involved in and constituting the 
essential aspect of sensation becomes explicit as in- 
tellectual activity, first of all in Perception ; i. e., in 
those psychical experiences in which there is actual 
presentation of objects to the mind. With the pro- 
gressive unfolding of mental power the mind is able 
to revive the modes thus established. That is, through 
the exercise of its own power the mind is able at 
length to bring about a Re-presentation of objects 
through the objective aspects of modes established in 
the mind itself in the process of Perception. But 
there is involved in this re-presentative process the 
recognition of relations as between objects ; and rela- 
tions can be apprehended only in Thought. 

The Intellect thus presents as its fundamental 
modes: Perception, Re-presentation and Thought. 

There is to be noted here the significant fact that 
while the lower and more generalized aspects of life are 
due directly to heredity, and (invertebrates) are organ- 
ically unfolded at birth into fairly perfected form in the 
spinal cord as their central organ ; the more individual- 
ized and higher aspects of life have their organic de- 
velopment in the brain. Whence it is by no means sur- 
prising that at birth this organ is very immature and 
attains full structural development only through the 



14 

higher functions of individualized life — requiring, in 
fact, for the attainment of full maturity at least twice 
the time necessary for the complete unfolding of the 
bodily organism in its other aspects. The more 
individualized the structure the more completely does 
its actual determination — that is, its realization into 
full efficiency — depend upon individualized functions. 



We have next to consider the special aspects of the 
mind considered as Intelligence. 

A. Perception is to be considered: (1) as Pro- 
cess', (2) as Product. 

1. As Process it begins in Sensation, and consists 
in the immediate reference of psychic states to sensu- 
ous objects. 

a. The character of the perception in any given 
case depends upon that of the sensation, as this in 
turn depends upon the character of the stimulus which 
the sense-organ is suited to transmit. 

b. The sense which presents in completest form 
both the subjective and the objective aspects of sensa- 
tion is that of vision. For this reason it is taken as 
the type, and from it the analysis of sensation in its 
more general character is developed. 

This assumed, the first phase of every sensation is 
simple consciousness of change. The second is the 
expression of the inherent demand of the mind for 
cause. It consists in the gathering of attention upon 
the fact of change experienced in the mind. The 
third phase consists in turning the attention in the di- 



15 

rection from which the stimulus comes. The fourth , 
in distinguishing one portion of space from surround- 
ing space (seeing the object). The fifth, in distin- 
guishing the object from one's self — i. e., recogniz- 
ing it as one's own object, and yet as an object. 

c. In the last two phases, especially, there is evi- 
dently implicit an act of discrimination or judgment 
(thought). Whence it appears that not even the sim- 
plest act of perception can take place without involv- 
ing in some degree the highest mode of intelligence 
— i. e., Thought. 

2. The Product of perception is at once both sub- 
jective and objective, and is called a Percept. 

a. As subjective the Percept is a mode of the mind 
considered as a unit of energy and is limited to a 
single characteristic, as color or sound. As objective, 
it is the seeming renewed presence of the object, 
though the latter be no longer within view. This 
seeming presence of the object is called the Image. 
Both the subjective mode and its objective aspect, the 
Image, are necessary and complementary phases of 
the Percept. (In its fullest meaning the term "image' , 
is here used technically for the objective aspect of any 
and every Percept developed through any one of the 
senses). 

b. Even of the objective aspect of Percepts, by 
far the greater part is still a subjective creation. Color, 
sound, odor, flavor, warmth or cold — all these are 
subjective products. They are aspects of the 



16 

" Image," indeed, and hence belong to the objective 
aspect of the percept. But the percept as a whole 
is still a psychical product, having no real resem- 
blance to the outer object save in the single aspect 
of shcfpe. (In vision the geometrical relations in- 
volved in the stimulus are preserved for the retina by 
passing through the circular opening of the Iris ; 
just as in touch those relations are preserved for the 
mind by the simultaneous sensations of direct contact 
through definitely localized end-organs of this sense.) 
Thus, even in this simplest phase of its activity, mind 
shows itself possessed of creative power in marvelous 
degree. 

B. Representation. — But a percept really be- 
comes matured as such only through successive 
stages. An object must be seen many times before 
it is rightly seen. And repetition means Reteiition. 
That there can be any consciousness of a second ex- 
perience as second there must be retained in con- 
sciousness the product of that experience which, in 
contrast with the present, is recognized as former or 
first. 

Repetition, besides, requires only that the object 
presented the second (or thousandth) time be the 
same in kind. Each act of Perception is, doubt- 
less, of a particular thing only. And yet so much 
of Thought is present in perception that the typical 
form is after all what is really seen. (Further on will 
be seen the deep-reaching significance of this fact in 
the process of naming and classifying. ) 



17 

1. Involuntary Reproduction of Percepts. Any 
given Act of Perception, then, is always strictly 
of a given particular object. On the other hand, 
the developed Percept is generic and universal. 

A percept is developed through repeated acts of 
perception into clearness and accuracy and adequacy. 
And for each of those repeated acts of Perception, 
through which are brought about the correction and 
deepening of a percept already partially formed in 
the mind, a new act of perception of similar charac- 
ter is primarily the necessary occasion. Such revival 
of a Percept constitutes the simplest phase of Re- 
tention ; and in this form it is known as simple Repre- 
sentation. We have here, in fact, precisely that 
mode of Representation known as Involuntary Re- 
production of Percepts. And this is, of course, suc- 
ceeded naturally by the voluntary phase of activity 
within this same sphere. That is, with exercise of 
power there is increase of power. And such increase 
of power on the part of a living unit, as we shall see 
further on, tends inevitably toward self-^cWviiy ; in 
other words, toward the voluntary or independent 
exercise of power. And since this first general aspect 
of voluntary Representation is still exclusively occu- 
pied with imagery, it is properly termed Imagination. 

(Involuntary reproduction of percepts, as the sim- 
plest aspect of Retention, is of interest chiefly because 
of its being the transition from simple Perception to 
the sphere of Imagination properly speaking.) 



18 

2. Imagination. With every repetition of an act 
of perception the pei'cept as a mode of the mind 
becomes more fully developed. This is one aspect 
in the maturing of the mind as a unit of energy. And 
with this approximation toward maturity the mind at 
length becomes able in increasing degree to repro- 
duce its own modes in conscious degree at will. 
That is, the voluntary aspect of Representation is 
attained. Or, again, in Perception the object is pre- 
sented to the mind. As percepts are matured through 
repetition the object comes to be represented 
through the image — i. e., through the objective phase 
of the Percept. And this process attains at length a 
voluntary character. In other words the mind be- 
comes increasingly able to control its own modes as 
those modes mature. Or rather, the proof of in- 
creasing maturity consists here precisely in the self- 
activity manifested in the greater readiness and ease 
with which percepts are reproduced at will. 

It is this control of imagery, including not merely 
the voluntary revival of Percepts, but also, and more 
especially, the modification and new creation of 
linages that is properly termed hnagination. 

Of this there are two chief aspects — (a) the 
Esthetic, and (b) the Scientific. 

a. ^Esthetic Phase, a. Already in childhood the 
cesthetic phase of Imagination attains a remarkable 
development. The percepts of the child-mind are 
vivid, but lacking in accuracy and in adequacy. 



19 

Imperfectly developed, they easily undergo modifi- 
cation. And this either with or without choice on 
the part of the child. Hence the imagery of the 
child-mind assumes any character, according to the 
immediately prevailing mood of the child, and alto- 
gether regardless of the laws prevailing in the actual 
outer world. 

Unrestrained by any consciousness of such laws the 
child-mind creates a whole world of imagery which 
is in great degree arbitrary and subjective. It is only 
by continuous collision with the actual objective 
world that the thought-aspect of the child-mind is 
stimulated into concrete development. And this as- 
pect it is which, more and more completely fused 
with the processes of the Imagination, renders the 
products of the Imagination more rational — i. e., 
more and more harmonious with the actual objective 
world. 

Childish Fancy is the Idealism of the childhood 
stage of mind. Experience — chiefly in the negative 
form of disappointment — reduces this more and more 
to the prose of Realism. 

It is the childhood stage in the growth of the race 
that gives rise to myths — the first form of interpreta- 
tion of the World in its relation to man as a dis- 
tinctively spiritual being. 

ft. With the gradual adjustment of the mind of 
the race, and of the mind of the individual through 
the race, to the World in its more rational character 



20 

the conceptions constituting the central element in 
products of the Imagination become more consistent. 
And this in turn gives to the products themselves a 
more rhythmic character. It is upon this interfusion 
of the thought-element with the sensuous element 
that the rank of art-works as products of the Imagi- 
nation chiefly depends. It accounts for the differ- 
ence between a Chinese idol and a Phidian Zeus ; 
between a nursery tale and a Divina Co?nedia. It 
is the clew leading up out of the crude Idealism of 
childhood, through the immediate facts of the "Real" 
World, to the ultimate types of that Idealism which 
is possible only to the rationally matured mind. 

It is in seizing and adequately representing these 
ultimate, eternal types of Beauty in their sensuous 
aspects that Imagination proves its highest creative 
power. 

( 1 ) The simplest phase in the process of the imagina- 
tion is that of the voluntary re-production of Percepts. 
This always implies a purpose, an Ideal, consciously 
or unconsciously entertained. In its very nature the 
mind, as already indicated, demands Perfection. 

(It is for Metaphysics rather than for Psychology 
to account for this demand, and to explain more fully 
what Perfection in its ultimate nature really is.) 

As Imagination the mind demands perfection of 
sensuous form. In simple voluntary reproduction of 
percepts this appears in the selection spontaneously 



21 

made as between one and another percept or group 
of percepts. 

(2) But this very selection tends not merely to render 
the most "perfect" percepts more vivid as modes of 
the mind, but also to fuse the finest objective char- 
acteristics of the finest percepts in the whole range of 
a given type into one typically -perfect Image. So 
that voluntary Reproduction of Images already in- 
volves the process which, in its explicit phase, is 
properly called Creative Imagination. Both process 
and product must vary within the range of each of the 
special senses. But only for -the senses of Sight and 
Hearing can the product ever really rise to the rank of 
an art-work. 

b. Scientific Phase, a. The Scientific phase of 
Imagination appears on first view to be confined 
mainly to the simple reproductive aspect — the pur- 
pose (Ideal) here being to attain the highest possible 
degree of clearness, accuracy and adequacy in the 
representation of typical forms as they actually occur 
in nature. Indeed, in every phase of science, having 
reference to space forms, this mode of Imagination 
is constantly called into play ; while in this sphere 
creative Imagination is limited rather to invention (e. 
g.j developing forms of apparatus or machinery) 
with a view to satisfying either a scientific purpose 
or an immediately "practical" human need. 

/J. But, as the thought-element of the mind becomes 
explicit, relations are apprehended, and become the 



22 

chief "object" of attention ; and relations can be 
seized and represented only in forms specially adapted 
to such purpose. 

Now, as a relation can be seized only in thought, so 
it can be represented only through a sign. And this 
sign must of necessity be produced (created) by the 
mind itself. Again, the whole range of signs through 
which Thought is represented constitutes Language. 
And the sensuous forms of Language — consisting of 
the spoken sounds or of the written signs of such 
sounds — are in their entire compass nothing else than 
a complex product of the Imagination. 

Thus we have here a special and highly advanced 
phase of creative Imagination. It is, indeed, subor- 
dinated to the exclusive purpose of creating signs for 
the representation of Thought and hence may very 
appropriately be given the name of the Sign-Creating 
Imagination. But the subtlety of its function shows 
the high rank to which Imagination here attains. 

3. Memory. But the complexity of Thought neces- 
sitates an immense range both in number and in vari- 
ety of such signs. And this in turn can be realized 
only through a corresponding development of the 
power of Retention. Not only so, but here the power 
of Retention assumes a new and highly significant 
character. In the spheres of Representation already 
considered, Retention is evei'ywhere necessarily im- 
plied ; but everywhere also, in those spheres the re- 
tention is of modes of mind the objective aspects of 



which are images. In the sphere of Representation 
nowreached the real "object" of attention is a quality 
or group of qualities seen in some special relation; 
and a relation can be seized only in thought; and 
thought can be adequately expressed only in words. 

Here, then, the retention is of words and of the 
modes of Thought represented in and through the 
words. This phase of Retention constitutes by far 
the most important sphere of activity for what is 
commonly known as Memory. 

And because of the importance of having a term 
the use of which shall constantly emphasize this 
aspect of Retention in contrast with those aspects in 
which imagery constitutes the invariable form of 
Representation, it is desirable, in Psychology espe- 
cially, to restrict the use of the term "Memory" to 
that aspect of Retention in which the form of Repre- 
sentation consists of words. 

a. Word- Memory. Thus considered, Memory 
presents its simplest phase in the 'acquisition of Lan- 
guage, which is also simply the objective form of the 
process of developing thought. Here as elsewhere 
Life consists in, and is developed through successive 
responses to, stimuli from what for the individual 
is primarily a literally external world. The child 
begins to learn Language by hearing "words" 
(groups of sounds) in given relations. Only as 
he comes to apprehend in its proper connection 



24 

a given group of sounds does such group of sounds 
become an actual word for him. 

Only by slow degrees, through thousand-fold repe- 
tition, is this last result actually attained ; and with 
this comes the impulse to actually speak — to produce 
articulate sound, just as the rudimentary phase of 
thought (present from the very outset of the individual 
life) is vaguely represented in inarticulate sound. 

(Of the highest practical importance in the actual 
development of language on the part of the indi- 
vidual, as well as of special interest in science, is the 
nervous process consisting of the training of the organ 
of hearing, the establishment of practical connection 
between this organ and the brain, especially with 
that part of the cerebral cortex devoted to speech, 
and finally the development of actual communication 
between this center and the vocal organs. It is to be 
noted, too, that this physiological order coincides 
with the only conceivable psychical order in the 
acquisition of Language by the individual.) 

First of all, then, the sensuous element, consisting 
of the spoken word, serves as the medium through 
which the thought-element, properly speaking, is de- 
veloped in the individual mind. And in this initial 
stage the thought-element can be seized only as the 
sensuous element of Language is actually presented to 
the mind through the sense of Hearing (and, later, 
through the sense of vision in learning the written 
form of Language). 



25 

Here, then, we have a phase of Memory that may 
appropriately be termed Word-Memory . 

b. Reproductive Memory. But with the continu- 
ance of the psychical activity here involved, the 
thought-element becomes so far matured and so com- 
pletely interfused with the sensuous element of the 
corresponding words, that the mind is able indepen- 
dently to reproduce the thought-element, and with 
this the word as its objective, organic form. That 
is, we have here the special phase of Retention prop- 
erly called Reproductive Memory. 

c. Mechanical Memory. A further stage of ad- 
vancement is reached when the thought-element has 
become so far enriched in the mind of the individual 
as to require a more or less extended group of words 
from which to choose in order to express this or that 
particular shade of meaning ; the latter depending 
upon the special relation emphasized in any given 
case. Here so mature is the thought-element and so 
complete is the "command of Language," that, the 
theme being given, thought develops with perfect 
freedom and the language, serving as the exact em- 
bodiment of the thought, is made use of without 
conscious effort. Hence the phase of Retention here 
involved is appropriately named Mechanical Memory . 

Its physiological aspect is a species of automatic 
action as the organic result of long-continued nervous 
processes. 



26 

In this highest form of memory we have the ma- 
tured appliances and aptitudes for the highest forms 
of intellectual activity — namely, the various forms of 
Thought. 

C. Thought. Some degree of anticipation in re- 
spect of this part of the subject has been altogether 
unavoidable even in the summary view just completed 
of Imagination and Memory. It can not be too 
strongly emphasized that in the actual development 
of the mind, all its modes are present at every stage. 
It is, let us repeat, because the more complex phases 
attain, and can only attain, explicit development at 
correspondingly later stages in the entire process of 
mental growth that there is any appearance of one 
phase succeeding another in that process. 

On the other hand (to confine ourselves now to the 
sphere of Intelligence), Thought is, as we have seen, 
already implicit in the very simplest act of percep- 
tion ; just as it is also implicit, though in far more 
complex character, in Imagination ; while it is even 
presupposed as in greater or less degree an explicitly 
developed mode of mind throughout the whole range 
of Memory, properly speaking. 

It is Thought in this explicit character that we have 
next to consider. 

1. Conception. — An act of perception consists in 
the immediate response of the mind to some external 
stimulus upon the organ of one or another of the 



27 

senses. An act of the (creative) Imagination con- 
sists in the fusing of the objective characteristics of 
many percepts into one universal or typical Image. 

a. Process of Conception. — An act of thought of 
the simplest degree consists (as we have next to note) 
in the seizing together in their unity a more or less 
complex group of qualities as constituting one object. 
But the actual performance of such act presupposes 
a degree of mental growth which is itself attainable 
only through a more or less extended series of efforts ; 
that is, there must have been presented in succession 
to the mind through one or more of the senses many 
objects, each of which still gave rise to essentially the 
same group of psychical reactions. 

Along with this there must have been frequent 
repetitions of a given sound or group of sounds in 
the hearing of the individual and in such way as to 
bring this sound or group of sounds into explicit con- 
nection in his mind with the objects successively 
apprehended. The identity of the sound or group 
of sounds in each recurring experience of this reaction 
must help to emphasize in his mind the identity of the 
characteristics constituting any one object of a given 
series with those constituting any other object of the 
same series ; just as, on the other hand, the sound or 
group of sounds must come at length to be fused in 
his mind with the group of characteristics thus grad- 
ually seized together in their unity and explicitly 



28 

recognized as constituting the object. It is then that 
for the first time the sound or group of sounds consti- 
tutes a word for him. 

When this has actually taken place in any given 
mind, such mind has performed an act of Conception. 
That is, it has seized together in their unity a given 
group of characteristics, which are found to constitute 
whatever is essential in each one of an indefinitely 
extended series of objects, which objects are thus 
seen to be identical with one another in kind or type. 

b. Product of Conception. — But this Process has 
for its Product a permanent mode of mind ; and this 
mode is properly called a Concept. And the objec- 
tive form of the concept is just that sound or group 
of sounds which, as we have seen, becomes for the 
individual a word in the proper sense of the term 
only when it attains in his mind precisely this charac- 
ter: that it is the outer, organic form of the concept. 

(The formation of more abstract concepts, as that 
of color, or of form, or of magnitude, or of weight, or 
of quality, etc., can here be no more than merely 
mentioned.) 

It is to be noted now that while a Percept has for 
its subjective aspect a sensuous element (as color, or 
sound, or odor), the objective form of which is an 
"Image',*' a Concept has for its subjective aspect a 
thought-element, the only adequate objective form of 
which is a word. 



29 

Such, in brief, is the distinction between the pro- 
ducts of these two widely different, and yet closely 
allied, modes of intelligence. 

2. Understanding. — We have next to note that in 
the very process of Conception there is involved the 
recognition of identity in characteristics as between 
one and another of a series of objects. For this reason 
the same name can be rightly applied to different ob- 
jects. Naming is, in truth, a process of identifying — 
of seeing the one in the many. That is, again, to as- 
sign the same name to different objects is to see each 
particular object of a given series as universal in its 
essential, integral character. It is to see in that ob- 
ject all those fundamental characteristics constituting 
each of the other objects of the series. It is to see 
that in such series the particular objects are really 
different from one another only in an external or 
formal sense ; that essentially, in their fundamental 
nature, they are identical. 

Now this entire process of ranging objects in series 
according to their essential characteristics, and 
naming them accordingly, is the process of classifica- 
tion. It begins, indeed, in the most superficial noting 
of some external mark specially striking to the 
sensuous aspect of mind — as in the naming of the 
"cat-bird." In the field of science, on the other hand, 
it culminates in the recognition of identities in or- 
ganic structure as expressive of identities in functional 
activity — for example, in tracing the class "Pheno- 
gam," or the class "Vertebrate." 



30 

It is to be added that when the fundamental 
characteristics are so presented to us that we recog- 
nize the typical nature of any given object, and 
thus, also, the typical nature of the class to which 
it belongs, we indicate our mental adjustment to 
the given fact by the expression: "I understand. " 
It is as if the mind felt its own essential subjec- 
tive unity to be emphasized in each act of seizing 
together in their unity the group of characteristics 
constituting an object. Hence, for the mode of 
thought here indicated by its leading characteristic no 
more appropriate designation can be found than : 
"Understanding" — a term which literally affirms the 
subjective unity of the mind in every conscious ob- 
jective reference. For example, if I say (think) 
; 'lily," there is conscious reference to an object which 
is a unit. The significance of such process is two- 
fold. On the one hand attention is given chiefly to 
the inseparable, though distinguishable, qualities 
which in their unity constitute the one given object. 
On the other hand, many objects are seen to be each a 
repetition of this same unity of characteristics. Each, 
then, is essentially the same as any other of the series. 
Hence the same designation applies to each and all 
alike. The whole series thus comes to be seen in a lar- 
ger unity called a class. But again, as the power able 
to seize these various aspects of unity, the mind can 
not but feel in increasing degree its own unity and 
self-identity with each repetition of such experience. 



31 

Let us note now, that in what immediately precedes, 
there emerges into explicit form that deep-reaching 
significance already noticed as inherent even in the 
immediate product of Perception. 

(In this whole sphere, too, as in those preceding, 
there is constantly required, and here brought into 
more explicit form, as a necessary condition of 
accuracy and adequacy of result, the special mode 
of mental activity known as Attention, the more 
developed form of which makes its appearance in this 
sphere as Observation. And this, especially in the 
field of the Sciences of Observation, is simply Per- 
ception subordinated to Thought.) 

3. Judgment. — But this very process of Identifi- 
cation can attain explicit form only in so far as it in- 
volves the critical mode of mind ; and it can attain 
trustworthy results only in so far as it is completely 
interfused with that mode. 

It is easy to see identities. Primitive man saw 
them everywhere and filled the world with myths — 
often beautifully rational, but also often monstrously 
irrational. If Science, if Art in its highest form, 
is to be attained it can be only through a careful noting 
of differences as well as of points of identity. In this 
way alone can the classifications of science be expect- 
ed to coincide with the types of the actual world. 
In no other way can the forms of art be restricted 
to their proper function of unfolding into rhythmic, 



32 

sensuous expression the fundamental aspects of Truth 
inherent in and constituting the essence of all the 
forms of the Real World. 

Understanding, then, as the mode of thought by 
which identities are recognized, is still a powerless 
abstraction except in so far as it is interfused with the 
complementary mode of thought — i. e., the mode by 
which the natural lines of distinction are traced out 
between individual and individual, between species 
and species. 

Nature itself is a vast process of differentiation. 
The growth of mind consists in its own self-differen- 
tiation, in its own self-definition. And the normal 
aspect of this latter process in the sphere of Thought 
is the unfolding of definitions in the mind which con- 
form as precisely and as adequately as possible to the 
definitions or thought-forms concretely unfolded in 
the actual objects of the world constituting the mind's 
environment. Ln the process of nature a progressive 
scission takes place in the universal Substance and a 
particular form — a rose — unfolds as the concrete em- 
bodiment of a thought-form constituting a generic 
character. 

To such fact the relatively undifferentiated mind re- 
sponds by a similar progressive scission within its 
own being ; and when in any given case this process 
is fairly matured the mind is said to have "arrived at" 
.(it has simply developed within itself) a decision 



33 

concerning the fact. It has come to know the fact. 
In other words, it has adjusted its own subjective mode 
to the given form of objective reality. 

It has now recognized, not merely a similarity ; it 
has also recognized difference. And difference is 
limitation of identity. 

Now this tracing of differences as they inhere in 
the nature of things is the exercise of thought in that 
special mode properly named Judgment ; and it is 
evident that in no other way than through the more 
or less complete interfusion of Understanding and 
Judgment can a really rational or organic view of the 
world be attained. 

(The following further points can here be brought 
together only by way of enumeration : (1) All thought 
is a tracing of relations, whether of likeness or of 
difference ; (2) Every relation presupposes two or 
more objects — each representing a more or less ex- 
tended class ; (3) In the mind of the individual each 
"object" is a concept; (4) Thinking, then, is really 
a comparison of concepts; (5) The objective form 
of a concept is a word, and thus (6) the objective 
form of a thought — whether the relation seized be 
that of likeness or of difference — must be a proposi- 
tion.) 

4. Reason. — But, even so, Understanding and 
Judgment appear as in unstable equilibrium. How- 
ever far they may presuppose one another, yet, as 
contrasted modes of mind, they still appear as in 



u 

more or less positive conflict. Now likeness, and now 
difference, is the emphasized aspect of the relations 
apprehended. Whence it is evident that unless there 
is a further and higher mode of Thought than either 
Understanding or Judgment, there can be no point of 
rest for the mind in this highest sphere of Intelligence. 

And yet already, even in the simpler phases of 
Intelligence, we have noticed that in the very nature 
of the mind there is an inherent demand for Perfec- 
tion. In the sensuous phase this demand is satisfied 
when the psychical response is to a nervous excitation 
which is in full unison with the external stimulus. In 
the sphere of Thought the demand for Perfection is 
satisfied only when there is recognized a complete 
interfusion of relations of Likeness and of Difference 
in a more or less complex unit presenting one or 
another degree of self-sufficing wholeness — for ex- 
ample: a sphere (planet), a cube (crystal), a cell 
(organic unit), a rose (organism), a soul (conscious 
unit of Energy), God (the absolute, self-knowing, 
creative, all-inclusive, all-unfolding Substance.) 

As such Totality necessarily involves both Likeness 
and Difference in concrete interfusion it is evident 
that the psychical act of seizing such Totality can be 
an act neither of the Understanding as such nor of 
Judgment as such ; but rather that it must be an act 
consisting of a mode of Thought involving both these 
as its subordinate factors. 



35 

Something of this seizure of Totality is foreshad- 
owed in Conception, each act of which, as already 
pointed out, is the seizing-together in their unity a 
given group of characteristics as constituting one 
object. So also in the explicit process of the Under- 
standing in Classification there is the seizing-together 
of many objects as each embodying one universal or 
typical form ; while in Judgment the precise unity of 
such typical form is emphasized by the clear appre- 
hension of its limits (both external and internal). 

But when Likeness and Difference are clearly re- 
cognized as mutually complementary in any possible 
concrete unit so that the unit is seen to be of necessity 
precisely what it is, neither more nor less, then To- 
tality is fairly apprehended and the unit may be said 
to be fairly comprehended. 

And this comprehension of a unit in its necessary 
complementary relations of Likeness and Difference 
is precisely the process known as Reasoning ; and the 
mode of Thought which is alone adequate to such 
process is properly called Reason. 

Note further that as a given (explicit) act of Judg- 
ment consists in a comparison of concepts and has for 
its organic form a Proposition ; so any given (explicit) 
act of Reason consists in a comparison of specific 
"judgments," and has its organic form in a syllogism. 
This may be extended to any degree of elaboration in 
the process of Reasoning or Inference. 



36 

(In its method Psychology presupposes Logic, just 
as in its subject-matter Logic presupposes Psychology. 
As the natural history of mind Psychology has a wider 
range than Logic, which is devoted exclusively to 
tracing out the fundamental method of Thought in 
its fully matured degree. As developing the neces- 
sary forms of Thought, and hence as developing the 
essential aspects of the method of all science, Logic 
is of wider scope than Psychology, which is limited 
in its range to applying the universal method of Logic 
in one single department of knowledge.) 

It remains to be noted as self-evident that with 
Reason, as the mode of mind through which Totality 
is apprehended and things are comprehended, the 
culmination of the phase of mind known as Intelli- 
gence is attained once for all. 

A moment's reflection leads to this further remark: 
That in every phase or degree of intelligence there is 
necessarily implied some measure of Feeling or 
Se?isibility. Whatever we are related to in con- 
sciousness is either attractive or repellent. We ex- 
perience either desire or aversion toward it. We are 
led, therefore, to consider next the nature of this 
special mode of mind which is seen to be a necessary 
accompaniment of every act of our Intelligence. 

IV. SENSIBILITY. 

As a preliminary definition it may be said that Sen- 
sibility is the passive form of Consciousness — the 



37 

simple "sense" of harmony or of contradiction as be- 
tween the individual mind and its environment. 

The special character of Sensibility depends upon 
the nature of the relations in which the individual 
mind is involved. These relations are (A) in their 
objective aspect Physical, in their subjective aspect 
organic; (B) in their objective aspect Social, in their 
subjective aspect Individual ; (C) in their objective 
aspect Cosmic, in their subjective aspect Personal. 

We have thus three special phases of sensibility. 
The first of these is spontaneous, and is evidently 
limited to the sensuous aspect of life. The second is 
already more or less deliberative, and is developed 
through the institutional or "practical" aspect of life; 
the third is specifically contemplative, and is unfolded 
mainly through what is known, in the wider sense of 
the term, as the Spiritual aspect of life. 

Here again the absolute unity of mind is to be em- 
phasized. In the present part of our summary view we 
have to consider, not successive stages, but only spe- 
cial aspects of Sensibility — distinguishablehvX wholly 
inseparable. As with the various phases of Intelli- 
gence, so here, the appearance of serial development 
is due to the fact that the more complex the phase the 
greater the extent of time necessary to its complete 
unfolding. Nor is it to be forgotten that Intelligence 
and Sensibility are also mutually complementary and 
completely interfused phases of consciousness. 



38 

A. Sensuous Aspect of Sensibility. The phase 
of Sensibility involved in the sensuous aspect of life 
is primarily that of the agreeable or the disagreeable. 
According as the physical stimulus acts upon the 
organism so as to excite rythmic responses or the 
reverse — raising or lowering the "tone" of the ner- 
vous system — the aspect of the response consisting of 
feeling will be in one or another degree pleasurable 
or painful. 

Each of the senses constitutes a medium for an 
extended range of experiences of the agreeable or 
the reverse. Here, too, the character of the expe- 
rience will of course depend upon the nature of the 
particular sense. At one extreme are the senses of 
nutrition (smell and taste) with their predominantly 
physiological character. At the other extreme are 
the senses of Sight and Hearing with their predom- 
inantly psychical character. The latter senses, in- 
deed, serve as media for experiences of the most 
refined nature, extending into the higher degrees of 
Sensibility. 

The psychical response to the stimulus from the 
environment is here, indeed (in this elementary phase 
of Sensibility), mainly of the reflex type. That is, 
the response is primarily organic, and is to be ex- 
plained biologically as due to the complex, highly 
endowed structural form which has its origin in the 
experience of the race. 



39 

But here, too, increased realization of individual 
life depends upon the continuous adjustment of the 
individual living unit to its environment. The more 
perfect the adjustment, the more positive is the con- 
nection between the unit and its environment; and 
hence, by so much the greater will be that pleasurable 
feeling which is but the subjective form of unison be- 
tween self and the environment upon which the growth 
of self depends — the "self" attaining explicit realiza- 
tion, indeed, only in the living unit known as human. 

One of the most striking forms in which Sensibility 
of the simpler degree makes its appearance is that of 
the pleasure of mere living in which the instinct of 
self-preservation is so closely involved. Inseparable 
from this egoistic sentiment, too, as its complementary 
form, is the equally spontaneous (organic) pleasure 
in the lives of others, and the efforts for the preserva- 
tion of those lives, to which such pleasurable phase 
of Sensibility leads. 

Thus, even in this simple, rudimentary phase ot 
Sensibility, the interdependence of the egoistic and 
the altruistic sentiments is clearly manifest. Never- 
theless, in this sphere each experience of pleasure or 
of pain is more or less isolated and may very well be 
followed by an experience of directly opposite char- 
acter. This is conspicuously the case in child-life, 
where sudden and violent transitions in feeling are to 
be expected as a matter of course. And this the more 
for the reason that the intellectual aspect of child-life 



40 

is confined chiefly, in the first place, to indiscriminate 
perception — the response here taking place with 
equal readiness to any and every stimulus, so that 
any given series of experiences will be altogether 
heterogeneous, and hence conspicuously lacking in 
coherence — and, in the second place, to the mainly 
capricious aspect of imagination known as childish 
fancy. 

But all agreeable experiences, in the fact that they 
are agreeable, possess one common quality. And 
the greater the range and variety of such experiences 
the more do they tend to fuse into a more or less con- 
tinuous state. From being broken up into a series of 
more or less isolated and contradictory moods the 
mind attains a character of continuity in feeling. It is 
this which leads over (by simple development) into the 
next more adequate phase of Sensibility. It is easy to 
see, too, that this elevating and rationalizing of Sensi- 
bility will depend largely upon the intellectual habit 
developed by the individual. Habitual dwelling upon 
rational sensuous forms is one essential condition of 
cultivating a genuinely rhythmic or normal state of 
feeling within the limits of sensuous life. 

B. Practical Aspect of Sensibility. — In the 
institutional aspect of life the experience of the 
individual takes on a predominantly human char- 
acter. In the relations of home, of school, of so- 
ciety in general, the Individual finds in manifold 
forms and in increasing degree substantial grounds 



41 

of security. His associations are more or less uni- 
form. Stimulus and Encouragement are constantly 
extended to him. The great mass of conditions con- 
stituting his immediate actual environment (especi- 
ally the social world in its entire compass) exhibits 
more or less explicit and consistent organic unity. 
Such, at least, is the case in the normal life of the 
individual. 

Whence the sentiment of the Individual deepens 
into more and more clearly defined form and is 
increasingly characterized by consistency and con- 
tinuity. It is this aspect of Sensibility which in its 
most general character is properly named Contentment. 

But also this phase of Sensibility depends largely 
for its fullest development upon the general (intel- 
lectual) power of Representation exercised by the 
Individual himself. To revive a percept is not merely 
to strengthen the percept in its character of an intel- 
lectual product. It is also to deepen and render more 
vivid the aspect of feeling which is already necessa- 
rily involved in the process of perception, and which 
thus tends inevitably to recur along with each repro- 
duction of the percept. 

Thus as the intellectual process of Representation 
develops into the voluntary degree, and especially as 
Imagination attains maturity in its normal creative 
character, the Sentiment of Contentment becomes cor- 
respondingly strengthened and enriched ; just as, on 
the other hand, the abnormal activity of the intellect- 



42 

ual power of Representation can not but involve con- 
tradiction ; and with this there develops inevitably 
that sense of contradiction which is known as discon- 
tent. 

It is in this sphere especially that we have that wide 
range of pleasurable experiences which, in their char- 
acter of Sensibility, are grouped under the phrase : 
"Sentiment of the Beautiful." And when this be- 
comes the leading motive the Intelligence and the 
Will are brought into play in the creation of works 
of art as well as in the deliberate contemplation of 
natural beauty. 

Here, too, above all, is the sphere of the most com- 
plex interplay of the egoistic and the altruistic senti- 
ments, such as self-respect, love of friends, love of 
home, love of country, delight in the rhythm of social, 
of political and (on the human side) of religious life, 
both as actually realised and as conceivably realizable. 

But this very process of enriching and refining Sen- 
sibility through the fuller development of the Imagi- 
nation is already an idealizing process, and as such 
brings us to the consideration of the next higher phase 
of Sensibility. 

C. Spiritual Aspect of Sensibility. This next 
higher phase, as already intimated, is unfolded 
mainly through the contemplative or reflective 
aspect of life. In the whole course of what is 
ordinarily called Education, there are constantly em- 
phasized in the mind of the Individual the universal 



43 

and permanent aspects of the world. Power to dis- 
criminate between the vanishing and the abiding in all 
objects of interest is thus steadily cultivated. So that 
on every hand proofs multiply for the Individual, that 
beneath all the vanishing forms of the world about 
him, there is an assured basis of unalterable Law. 
And, as this conviction grows clearer, the sentiment 
of contentment deepens into a profound sense of 
security. 

But the refined pleasure thus experienced tends to 
stimulate the contemplative mood in still further de- 
gree. Imagination is called into play to picture, as 
thought is called into active exercise to demonstrate, 
the existence of a Perfect World ; and this especially 
in respect of the spiritual and abiding interests of 
man. To know the Law of Gravity gives substantial 
ground for the sense of physical security. Knowing 
the divine Law of the identity in nature of all minds, 
and hence of the identity as between the divine and 
the human nature, constitutes the basis for an absolute 
sense of the spiritual security of the Individual. 

The sense of harmony between the Individual and 
the rationally ordered physical world is simple com- 
fort. The sense of harmony between the Individual 
and the established order of the social world is called 
peace. The sense of harmony between the Individ- 
ual and the eternal order of the divinely constituted 
spiritual world is, in the proper sense of the term, 
Happiness. 



44 

Or it may be said that Sensibility in the sphere of 
sensuous life bears the normal character of pleasure ; 
while in the sphere of social life it may rise to the 
rank of joy ; and that in the sphere of the higher 
spiritual life it attains the character of serenity. 
It is in this latter sphere of the relations of the 
Individual to his environment, in its character of 
the universal or cosmic order, that the sentiment of 
sublimity on the one hand, and especially the religious 
phase of sentiment on the other, attains each its freest 
development. 

The first of these three fundamental phases of Sen- 
sibility, let us repeat, unfolds through the automatic 
and reflex processes in the normal sensuous life. The 
second unfolds through the willing self-adjustment of 
the Indvidual to the institutional world. The third 
is realized in consciousness first of all through the in- 
tellectual apprehension of the essentially abiding char- 
acter of the World, both in its physical and in its 
spiritual aspect. And when real Happiness arises 
as consisting in the clear sense of more or less fully 
realized harmony between the Individual life and the 
eternal or divine World as his ultimate and absolutely 
adequate environment, then Sensibility has attained 
its most adequate typical character, and can there- 
after develop only in degree. Nor is it to be forgot- 
ten that the germinal aspects of all these phases are 
present in interfusion in the very beginning of the in- 
dividual life, and that the explicit unfolding of the 



45 

one is later than that of the other, merely because of 
the greater complexity in nature of the one over that 
of the other. 

It is further to be noted that the more complex 
phases of Sensibility, like the more complex phases 
of the other fundamental modes of mind, depend 
for their development upon harmony of relations as 
between the Individual and his environment. 

And yet the very Ideal of harmony as between the 
Individual and his Environment in all its degrees 
necessarily implies that the harmony is to be realized. 
Otherwise the sentiment must be that of ^/zhappiness 
as the subjective aspect of dissonance between the 
Individual and the contemplated perfect World. 
Hence a completed view of the mind necessarily in- 
cludes the consideration of a further mode — the mode 
by which actual practical self-adjustment to the En- 
vironment in its fullest significance is to be accom- 
plished. This mode of Mind is known as the Will. 
And to this we have next to turn our attention. 

V. WILL. 

If Sensibility is characteristically the passive aspect 
of mind, Will is no less characteristically its active 
aspect. It is especially as Sensibility that the mind is 
said to be "susceptible/' "impressible," "respon- 
sive. " But this passivity of the mind is only another 
name for its receptivity ; and receptivity, in its fuller 
import, is reaction. 



46 

Now, this tendency to respond, to react, upon any 
and every stimulus, of whatever character, from the 
environment, is precisely that "practical," that "act- 
ive," phase of mind which in actual exercise is known 
as Will. Whence it appears that the relation between 
Sensibility and Will, just as that between Sensibility 
and Intelligence, is one of interdependence and mutual 
interfusion. On every hand the absolute unity of 
Mind is emphasized. 

Thus in its widest significance Will may be de- 
fined as the mind, considered as a Power-to-do ; just 
as the Intellect may be defined as the mind considered 
as a Power-to-know, and just as Sensibility may be de- 
fined as the mind considered as a Power-to- feel. 

Like the other phases of mind, Will has its initial 
aspect in the sensuous degree of life. Here it is in- 
volved in organic functions and in the structural forms 
expressive of those functions. Just as the sensory 
nerves and the cerebral centers constitute the organic 
media of Intellect and of Sensibility; so the motor 
nerves with the spinal cord and certain cerebral 
centers, along with the whole system of voluntary 
muscles, constitute the organic aspect of the Will. 

Here, indeed, the truth, already so often insisted 
upon, becomes specially conspicuous — the truth, 
namely, that the whole mind requires a whole or- 
gan, which organ is in reality the entire body. And 
yet it is not to be forgotten that development means 
differentiation — the specialization of structural form 



47 

to correspond with, as the organic expression of, 
progressively specialized functional activity. Nor is 
this anywhere more to be emphasized than in the 
development of the mind as Will. Here, also, we 
have to consider Mind (1) in its hereditary or physio- 
logical relations; (2) in its social or institutional re- 
lations, and (3) in its cosmic relations. 

The phase of the Will developed through the first 
of these groups of relations is known as Instinct; 
the phase developed through the second group is 
known as Habit; the phase unfolded through the 
third may properly be called Freedom. 

A. The Will as Instinct. This organic aspect 
of Will is seen above all in the lower orders of animals 
and in children. Doubtless the most rudimentary 
degree of Will is shown in the form of that "contract- 
ility, " which with its complementary phase of "irri- 
tability" as a premonition of feeling and intelligence, 
specially characterizes the simple unicellular animal. 
And whatever judgment may be passed upon the 
"psychic life of micro-organisms" it is beyond question 
that biological science has done most important service 
in furnishing clews to the solution of hitherto very 
obscure "problems of life and mind;" and this no less 
in respect of the Will than of Intelligence and of 
Sensibility. 

The Will can no longer be exclusively restricted to 
the explicitly conscious phases of life. In its charac- 
ter of mind considered as a Power-to-do it appears 



48 

first of all in "unconscious" organic activity. Here it 
is especially conspicuous under the form of Reflex ac- 
tion. The Individual reacts upon the environment in 
this or that manner, not from any conscious purpose 
of his own, but rather because in his spinal cord exist 
in organic fusion the cumulative results of the voli- 
tions, conscious and unconscious, of the Race as his 
collective ancestor. Thus far he is simply and liter- 
ally a "creature of instinct;" that is, of inherited 
tendencies. 

In this sphere movements take place in a "pur- 
posive" way indeed; but the "purpose" is present 
only in the organic structure of the animal ; not as a 
mode of its individualized consciousness. Nor can 
this "purpose" really be accounted for save as a 
specialized organic manifestation of that all-inclusive 
Purpose which constitutes the ultimate, unalterable 
Method of Creation and which is seen everywhere to 
lead up from simpler to more complex forms ; from 
not-living to living structures ; from unconscious to 
conscious units. (This is the metaphysical presuppo- 
sition underlying all modern science, especially the 
biological sciences, and above all manifest in modern 
Psychology in which those sciences find their culmina- 
tion. It is, in fact, just this presupposition which con- 
stitutes the central element of vitality in these sciences. ) 

But, as the product of Heredity, it is evident that this 
phase of the Will of the Individual is absolutely f re- 
determined. His acts are not his own. An incalcu- 



49 

lable complex of forces have converged and fused 
into a living mechanism which seems, indeed, to act 
from-that higher spontaneity consisting of conscious 
purpose ; but which, in reality, acts only from that 
lower spontaneity consisting merely of simple mechan- 
ical reaction upon this or that given physical stimu- 
lus. It is not free will, but will absolutely predes- 
tined. 

And yet, so far as responses to stimuli coming 
from the environment are such as to extend and in- 
tensify the harmony between the individual and his 
environment, there is increase of Life, of vigor, of 
unhindered rhythmic activity — growth in physical 
power and grace — development of what may be 
termed physical and physiological freedom on the 
part of the individual. His relations to his environ- 
ment are such that everything contributes to the fur- 
therance of his life. Every contact with the World 
renews his strength. It is in his rhythmic relation to 
the rational World that man, both physical and 
spiritual, is the true Antaeos. 

Nor must it be overlooked that in its concrete 
development the rudimentary phase of Will is com- 
pletely interfused with Perception on the one hand 
and with the sense of the agreeable or the reverse on 
the other. At the same time the tendency will be to 
repeat those acts which involve a sense of the agree- 
able and to avoid those which involve a sense of the 
disagreeable. So that already in Instinct there are 



50 

involved conditions tending to a choice as between 
actions of one and those of another character with 
respect to the individual life. Such choice, carried 
out, results in more or less definitely fixed tendencies 
on the part of the individual ; and such tendencies 
are known as Habits. It is this aspect of Will that 
we have next to bring under notice. 

B. The Will as Habit. As the result of heredity 
Instinct is individualized Will only in the sense of an 
organically realized tendency to repeat the general 
course of actions of one's ancestors. And yet because 
this tendency is the compound product of the activity 
of all one's ancestors, the instinct of the individual 
can never suffice to bring him into complete harmony 
with his environment ; which, besides, is itself con- 
stantly undergoing change and hence is in greater or 
less degree different from that of any of his ancestors. 

Hence, while from his organic nature the Individual 
of course responds to stimuli from his environment, 
such responses can not but be imperfect. So that 
from the first there is inevitable more or less disson- 
ance in the experience of the Individual in consequence 
of the more or less pronounced collisions taking place 
between himself and his environment through his im- 
perfect responses to the stimuli he receives therefrom. 

Such dissonance in the experience of the individual 
constitutes fain ; and the result of pain is to stimu- 
late the intelligence to inquiry as to the cause of the 
pain. This discovered there is (in the normal life) 



51 

conscious, purposive effort toward more perfect self- 
adjustment to the environment — a process which, 
traced back to its least adequate degree, is doubtless 
unconscious, though in every phase, from the simplest 
to the most complex, still purposive ; expressive, i. 
e., of the Intelligence inherent in the total creative 
Process. (Rightly understood " Heredity," espec- 
ially in respect of man's intellectual and moral 
nature, necessarily implies the fullest degree of ac- 
tual spiritual qualities on the part of his " ancestry.' ' 
But this points clearly to the necessity of including 
in our estimate of Man's ancestry that ultimate self- 
knowing Energy, which is, in truth, the indispensable 
presupposition of that wonderful Method of Creation, 
constituting what, in its concrete aspect, is known as 
the Process of Evolution. So that all the more direct 
forms of Heredity, commonly recognized as such, 
are really to be regarded as but special aspects of the 
whole process by which Man, as a conscious unit of 
Energy, realizes his descent from, as well as his as- 
cent to, the ultimate creative Personal Energy. 
Only from this latter can Man really " inherit'' the 
qualities which constitute his essential nature as Man. 
Such metaphysical note is quite indispensable to the 
proper comprehension of the human mind as the real 
subject of Psychology.) 

It is thus that individualized acts come to be per- 
formed ; and as such conscious, purposive acts come 
be multiplied in some one given direction a new 



52 

tendency is developed in the individual mind (and 
hence, also, in the organism embodying such mind). 

Such are the tendencies which, arising directly, as 
they do, from the invidualized actions of a given 
individual unit (here considered as human) are prop- 
erly termed Habits. 

Those habits expressive of and tending to empha- 
size the substantial adjustment of the Individual to 
the environment in its rational and permanent charac- 
ter are for that reason the habits tending to prolong, 
extend and enrich the life of the Individual. Hence, 
they are called good habits. On the other hand, those 
habits expressive of and tending to emphasize dis- 
sonance as between the individual and his environ- 
ment are for that reason habits tending to impov- 
erish and ultimately to destroy the life of the Indi- 
vidual. Hence, they are properly called bad habits. 

The extreme degree of the complexity of the en- 
vironment in respect of the Will considered as Habit 
can only be hinted at here. Besides the merely 
physical aspect (in which Instinct still plays an im- 
portant part) there is the whole range of the social 
environment — the institutional world — in which cus- 
tom, as the organic form of the communal Will, is 
the dominant feature. It is progressive adjustment 
to this as the most immediate concrete aspect of the 
spiritual environment that constitutes the unfolding of 
the will as Habit in the higher sense of the term. 



53 

But here again the environment itself undergoes 
change — is imperfect and must (normally) advance to 
more complex and more rhythmic forms. Further, the 
advancement of the Individual is the advancement 
of the Race, which again constitutes the more com- 
plex aspect of the environment of the Individual. 
From which the difficulties in the way of the Individ- 
ual's self-adjustment to his environment may be 
measurably appreciated. 

And not only so but because Custom, as the or- 
ganic form of the communal Will, is in reality the 
cumulative result of the life of the Race, and be- 
cause the development of the Individual's will con- 
sidered as Habit is practically limited to the custom 
of his time, it would seem that here, too, the form 
and possible extent of the actual development of the 
individual Will is predetermined ; that in this sphere 
also the Individual is essentially a creature of pre- 
destination. 

And yet the more complete the Individual's self- 
adjustment to the social environment (in its rational 
character) the more evidently will there be for him 
increase of Life, of vigor, of easy, rhythmic activity 
— growth in intellectual and moral power and grace 
— development of what may be called social or 
ethical freedom on the part of the Individual. 

The negative aspect of such Freedom is the ab- 
sence of hindrance. Its positive aspect is the sense 



54 

of Power. Here, too, every rational contact with the 
World in its rational character adds to the realized 
power of the Individual. In organic relation with the 
source of life his own life constantly expands. 

Let us note, besides, that self- activity is the central 
characteristic of every living unit. And in man, as 
the highest order of living units, self-activity attains 
in ever greater degree the character of conscious, de- 
liberate self-direction — i. e., the character of that 
genuine spontaneity which may properly be called 
Freedom. 

In this whole sphere there is the most complex 
interaction between Habit as the active phase of 
mind and the sentiment of Contentment as the 
specially passive phase of mind, mediated by 
Imagination as (in this sphere) the corresponding 
phase of Intelligence considered as the contemplative 
or regulative phase of mind. 

The Will as habit is directly involved in the whole 
sphere of intellectual development. "Habits of study' ' 
are "intellectual" habits, indeed. But this means 
nothing else than that in all intellectual activity there 
is necessarily implied choice both of subject-matter 
and of method. And "choice" is nothing else than 
the subjective aspect of that "Spontaneity" which is 
manifested outwardly or objectively in definite acts of 
Will. The complete interfusion of Intellect and 
Will, the absolutely indivisible unity of Mind, is here 
again emphasized in the highest degree. 



55 

C. The Will as Freedom. In its instinctive 
phase Will is simply organic and unconscious. In the 
phase of Habit it is conscious, but not yet critically 
reflective. With widened experience situations arise 
which stimulate the Intelligence to deliberately ques- 
tion the whole order of the World. The sense of in- 
evitable, irrepressible dissonance as between the indi- 
vidual and his environment can not be allayed save 
through the discovery (1) of the ultimate nature 
both of the Individual and of his environment, and 
(2) of the true means and method of final adjust- 
ment of the former to the latter. 

It is this impulse that gives rise to all science, 
whether of the natural or of the spiritualjworld. Sci- 
ence itself, is, indeed, the intellectual self-adjustment 
of man to his environment and as such already in- 
volves Will. {Attention is no less volitional than 
intellectual. And it is, of course, only through 
attention that any single step in the sphere of science 
can be taken). And further, as Science progresses 
so does the more thorough-going practical self-adjust- 
ment of man to the environment advance in complexity 
and precision. 

On the physical side this is illustrated by the whole 
course of Invention. On the spiritual side it is illus- 
trated by the progressive development of "self-com- 
mand ," which is the conscious subordination of pres- 
ent, but momentary, "real" values to ultimate and 
permanent ideal values. 



56 

This involves the discovery of the ultimate Laws of 
the spiritual aspect of the World — the discovery, that 
is, of their permanence, their comprehensive nature, 
their consistency as a total System. Further than this it 
involves the recognition of the fact that self-ad- 
justment to this System on the part of the Individual 
has for its necessary logical consequence the extend- 
ing and enriching of his spiritual life, while neglect 
of such self-adjustment to — still more antagonism 
with — this System must result no less inevitably in 
narrowed and impoverished spiritual life on his part. 

Here the real truth of the Socratic doctrine that 
"Virtue is knowledge," and that thus "no man will 
do wrong knowingly,' ' comes clearly to light. For 
he who really knows all the consequences of an evil 
deed, the remote as well as the immediate, will never 
commit that deed. 

In this higher sphere, then, Freedom is expressed 
in deliberate conformity to the divine Law of Reason ; 
while it consists of that growing Power-to-do (or to 
refrain from doing) which is the inevitable result of 
unison between the individual life and the ultimate 
spiritual order of the World. In other words, Free- 
dom is conscious conformity to Reason. Or, it is the 
adjustment of one's life to the ultimate order of the 
Cosmos — the Eternal World. 

Evidently, then, while the Will as Instinct is the 
product of the deeds of one's ancestors and is thus 
wholly predestined, yet at \he same time the Will as 



57 

Habit, and still more in its higher degree of conscious, 
reflective Will, is the cumulative product of one's own 
individualized deeds and constitutes the positive, 
active phase of that total of individual character 
which can not but become intensified and enriched in 
its very Individuality with each additional phase of 
positive, rhythmic relation that comes to be realized 
between itself and the ultimate, rational World- 
order which in its very nature is the source of all Life. 
In harmony with the World the World as a whole 
proves organic to one's Life. In antagonism with 
the World the World in just that far proves alien and 
inimical to one's Life. 

Such is the clew to the tracing out of what consti- 
tutes genuine, concrete Freedom as characterizing true 
spiritual Individuality in its highest sense of Person- 
ality. And here, evidently, as complementary to 
this highest phase of Will, considered as the active 
aspect of Mind, there is involved Thought as the 
highest phase of Intelligence considered as the con- 
templative aspect of Mind, while the sense of growing 
unison between the contemplated Ideal on the one 
hand and the actual Life of the Individual on the 
other appears in the character of Happiness as the 
highest phase of Sensibility, considered as the passive 
aspect of mind. 

Initially predestined the Individual may, neverthe- 
less, attain Freedom. But this again is a process of 
Evolution. The type is infinite ; the actual realiza- 



58 

tion in and for the Individual must ever remain 
finite. Freedom is attainable, yet never wholly at- 
tained. No man ever was or could be born free. 
Only through obedience, only through persistent, 
progressive self-adjustment of the individual Life 
to the established order of the world in its change- 
less character can such Life be extended and enriched 
to a degree of realized individual Power worthy of 
being even remotely designated as Freedom. 

And yet the very infinitude of the Type gives as- 
surance of infinite perfectibility for the individual 
human mind whether considered as a Power-to-know, 
or as a Power-to-feel, or as a Power-to-do. The 
realization of human Personality is to be attained only 
through an infinitely extended evolutional process, 
consisting of ceaseless approximation to that perfect 
Personality which is self-expressed in the total Cosmic 
Order. 



We have thus traced in brief outline the typical 
nature of mind considered as an individual unit of 
Energy. But this very tracing out of the essential 
characteristics of the type or Ideal of Mind in its indi- 
vidual and personal nature must inevitably raise the 
question : Through what means and by what method 
is this type or Ideal to be unfolded into reality in and 
for the Individual ? 

The more immediate answer to this question con- 
stitutes a further science — the science of Ethics. 



59 

The following list of Hand and Eeference books on 
Psychology was prepared directly in answer to a request 
for such list made by a group of people entering upon a sys- 
tematic study of the subject. 

As the request comes just while the foregoing Syllabus is 
passing through the press it has occurred to me that to ap- 
pend the list here may very likely prove a convenience to 
those private students into whose hands the Syllabus may 
chance to fall. My choice of works has been, not merely 
with reference to their intrinsic value, but also with a view 
to their mutually corrective and supplementary character. 

I. HANDBOOKS. 

1. Hoefding, Harald, Outlines of Psychology. 

2. Sully, J,, Outlines of Psychology. 

3. Bain, A., Mental Science. 

4. Dewey, J., Psychology (Text-book). 

5. Lotze, H., Psychology (Brief Sketch). 

6. Aristotle, Psychology (Text and Translation by E. 

Wallace) . 

7. Volkmann, W., Lehrbuch der Psychologic (3rd Ed., 

2 Vols.) 

II. SPECIAL WOKKS. 

8. Bomanes, G. J., Mental Evolution in Animals. 

9. Bomanes, G. J., Mental Evolution in Man. 

10. Preyer, W., The Mind of the Child. 

Part I. The Senses and the Will. 

Part II. The Development of the Intellect. 

11. Mueller, Max, Science of Thought. (2 Vols.) 

12. Sully, J., Sensation and Intuition. 

13. Sully, J., Illusions. 

14. Bibot, T., Select Works (Humboldt Library), incl. 

"Diseases of the Memory," "'. 
and "Diseases of Personality. 1 



60 

15. Colsenet, E., La Vie Inconsciente de L'Esprit (based 

on Hartmann's Philosophy of the Unconscious). 

16. Moll, A., Hypnotism. (Cont. Science Series.) 

III. WORKS EMPHASIZING GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

17. Lotze, II., Microcosmus (Especially Books II and V). 

18. Schopenhauer, A., The World as Will and as Represen- 

tation (Especially Books II, III and IV). 

19. Spencer, H., Principles of Psychology. (2 Vols.) 

20. Leives, G. H. t Problems of Life and Mind (Especially 

Series. III). 

21. Tain, H., On the Intelligence. 

22. James, W., Principles of Psychology. 

23. Hume, Works. (Ed. by T. H. Green.) 

24. Hegel, G. W. F., Philosophic des Geistes. (Erench 

version, with copious notes, by Vera.) 

25. Fichte, J. G., The Science of Knowledge. 

26. Plassmann, H. E., Die Psychologie auf Grundlage der 

Physik, geruass der Schule des h. Thomas. (Modern 
Catholic standpoint.) 

IV. WORKS ON PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 

27. Ladd, G. T., Outlines of Physiological Psychology. 

(An excellent return 6 of the subject.) 

28. Bastian, H. C, The Brain as an Organ of Mind. 

29. Carpenter, W. B., Mental Physiology. 

30. Wundt, W., Grundziige der Physiologishen Psychologie. 

(In the 3d Ed., 2 Vols., this is still the great work 
on the subject.) 



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